The Ministry of Agriculture is conducting DNA tests on Cambodian rice seeds to answer allegations made by Thai rice farmers and millers that Cambodia is growing Thailand’s nationally protected rice seed, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said Thursday.
A group of Thai farmers and rice millers on Tuesday accused the Thai government of turning a blind eye to Cambodian cultivation of the protected Hom Mali 105 rice, or jasmine rice, The Bangkok Post reported Wednesday.
The Thai farmers reportedly said that the Cambodian cultivation of jasmine rice, along with a Bangkok plan to allow duty-free imports of up to 1.5 million tons of Cambodian rice, would hurt domestic rice production and that Cambodia would “seize Thailand’s rice export market in the near future.”
Pramote Vanichanont, president of the Thai Rice Mills Association, said tests on rice sold from Cambodia’s leading rice exporter, Angkor Kasekam Roongroeung, showed that it was actually “100 percent” jasmine rice, the Post reported.
Cambodian agricultural officials said on Thursday that they use Neang Mali rice, which is similar to jasmine rice, and denounced Thai claims that cultivating the rice in Cambodia would ruin Thailand’s rice export industry.
“Saying that importing more Cambodian rice paddy will hurt Thai rice exports is just not true,” Chan Sarun said.
Cambodia only exports a small amount of milled rice compared to its neighboring countries. Precise statistics on how much rice paddy crosses the borders are not available since most farmers informally sell their products to Vietnam and Thailand.
“Exporting rice paddy from Cambodia is mainly illegal because the legal way will cost a lot of under-the-table money,” said Kim Savuth, president of the Prey Veng Rice Millers Association.
The DNA testing on the disputed rice seed is being conducted at the government-run Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, which is developing a draft law to register Khmer rice seeds. Chan Sarun expects the test results to be finished next week.
“Neang Mali is definitely Khmer rice that has belonged to our nation since our ancestors time,” Pen Vuth, deputy director of the ministry’s agronomy and land improvement department. “Because of the war, we lost it for awhile, but through the research of CARDI, those seeds are coming back,” he said.
A top official at Angkor Kasekam Roongroeung said Thursday his company only uses Neang Mali rice, not jasmine rice, as the Thai agriculture officials claimed.
“We prefer Neang Mali…. It’s much tastier,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of damaging business partnerships. “We export lots of rice that is the same quality as Thai rice. Sometimes people want to stop us with bad news.”
Angkor Kasekam Roongroeung is one of the few millers in Cambodia that exports rice to markets around the world. Rice millers face an array of obstacles to export, including poor rice seed quality, a lack of advanced technology and high production costs.
“Rice milling technology is lower than in Thailand and production costs are higher. I don’t think Thailand is scared about losing it’s rice export industry,” said Sam Bona, a rice specialist with Small and Medium Enterprise Cambodia, an NGO that assists small businesses.
